Chickens, Chickens, Chickens

A few months ago we ordered chicks from a catalog. Hannah ordered a breed called “White Rocks” and I got “Rhode Island Reds”. While we waited for them to arrive, Daddy and I built a mini chicken coop for them. We used wood and wire shelving. The coop would keep them safe from the larger chickens in the barn, who would peck them if they were together. We put hay in the coop and a heat lamp over it to keep them warm. We also went to Southern States and bought chick feed and a feeder. We had to get a waterer and special vitamin powder to put in the water.

The day they arrived, 4/20/2009, the post office called at 6:30 in the morning. All you could hear was cheeping in the background. It was really cute. When Daddy brought the chicks home they were in a small box all crowded together. They were small little fuzz balls. I was so exited. We put them in their coop. They looked very scared huddled together in the corner.

Chicken chores need to be done every day. Every morning and afternoon my sister and I checked the chick’s food and water to make sure they were full. The chick always have to have water because their lamp makes them hot. We had to teach them to drink the water by dipping their beaks in the first few

Sometimes the chicks would peck each other so we put green grass in the coop. We read in a book that it would help.

Every day my sister and I would hold every chick so they would get used to being handled. It was very fun. It felt fuzzy and sometimes their little claws would scratch me. I even got pooped on a couple of times. As they got bigger we tried tricks with them like balancing them on our heads. Daddy didn’t think this was a very good idea.

Soon the chicks were too big for their mini chicken coop so Daddy and I added roosts to the existing chicken coop (for shorter chickens) and let them out among the other chickens! This was when they were almost a month old. They didn’t need their lamp anymore. During the day they could explore and in the night, we would herd them in so they could be safe. We had to do this because they couldn’t yet fly up to the higher roosts, in case a predator came in the chicken coop.

Along with our chicken order we got one rare and exotic chick who we named Chipmunk. We don’t know what kind he was. He had stripes and was kind of aggressive. One day we couldn’t find him. There were no trails of feathers anywhere so we think he got picked up by a hawk. We were really sad.

At a month and a half old we started to wean the chicks off chick feed. Mice were sometimes a problem because they love chicken feed and they are so hard to catch. The chicks grew very fast and we were beginning to tell the difference between hens and roosters. When some of the chickens started to jump up into the rafters of the barn, we knew they were big enough for us to leave the coop door open at night, because they could fly away from predators during the night.

Now, at two and a half months old the chicks almost look like full grown chickens. They have large feet, long feathers, and their combs are starting to get bigger. I think they will be able to lay their brown eggs in a couple of months. I’m excited for the hens to start laying so we can have eggs from our own coop. I wonder if they will lay in the nesting boxes or if they’ll hide their eggs around the barn like our other chickens did.

I have enjoyed raising the chicks because it is fun to hold them and watching them grow up. It feels good to be responsible for helping the chicks grow healthy and strong. I’m excited for September to come when I will choose one to show in the Field Days of the Past Fair.